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On my Fox Business show last week, I celebrated some people who fight for liberty. Election season is upon us and I could have cited Ron Paul as a defender of freedom, but I didn't. I had some other idea in my column this week.

Alfred Kahn was a bureaucrat who, under President Carter, managed to kill off the Civil Aeronautics Board and Interstate Commerce Commission. By bringing freer markets to transportation, he saved Americans billions of dollars.

Norman Borlaug saved billions of lives. He invented a high-yield wheat that ended starvation in much of the world. He also criticized the environmentalists who fight the bioengineered food that could end hunger altogether.

How about Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine? He brought tastelessness to new depths -- but by spending his own money to defend free speech in court. He is a champion of freedom. So is musician Willie Nelson. He brought the battle against drug prohibition to the very roof of the White House (where he reportedly smoked weed).

How about the former president of the Czech Republic, the late Vaclav Havel? He demonstrated that speaking truth to totalitarians, while being willing to suffer the consequences, can be more potent than tanks.

I interviewed some champions of liberty, like John Allison, who ran BB&T, the 12th-biggest bank in America.

Most people don't think of businessmen as champions of liberty, but I do.

People resent bankers, and frankly, we should resent those who use their cozy relationship with government to freeload. But folks don't understand banks; they think bankers simply grab money for themselves. Allison is one of the few CEOs willing to face the cameras and explain banking to people.

'Banking is essential,' Allison told my audience. 'Banks allocate capital to people that deserve it. We see really big problems when the banks do a bad job and give capital to the wrong people.'